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Credit & Copyright: Tom Glenn
Explanation:
The Mare Orientale,
Latin for Eastern Sea, is one of the most striking
large scale lunar features.
The youngest of the large lunar impact basins it's
very difficult to see from an
earthbound
perspective.
Still, taken during a period of favorable tilt, or libration of the lunar
nearside, the Eastern Sea can be found near top center in this sharp
telescopic view, extremely foreshortened
along the Moon's western edge.
Formed by the impact of an asteroid over 3 billion years
ago and nearly 1000 kilometers across, the
impact
basin's
concentric circular features, ripples in the lunar crust,
are a little easier to spot in
spacecraft images of the Moon, though.
So why is the Eastern Sea at the Moon's western edge?
The Mare Orientale lunar feature was named before 1961.
That's when the convention labeling
east and west on lunar
maps
was reversed.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Moon
Publications with words: Moon
See also: